Untitled
by lchan1
Summary: Songfic to "A Thousand Words" by Savage Garden. Setsuna is pained as she thinks of Tuxedo-Kamen. Michiru tries to console her, but brings more questions than answers.


A Thousand Words by Savage Garden  
© 1997 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.  
**The Song**  


*~*~*

  
We stumble in a tangled web,  
Decaying friendships almost dead  
We hide behind a pack of lies.  
We twist and turn and we avoid  
All hope of salvage now devoid,  
I see the truth inside your eyes.

So take all this noise  
To your brain  
Send it back again  
I'll bear the cause  
Share my skin  
Call you up and then....  
*whisper*  
I'll say the words out loud...

You can ressurect a thousand words to decieve me,  
More and more.  
A thousand words will give the reason why I don't need you,  
Anymore.  
Ooh

Time manipulates your heart  
Pre-conceptions torn apart  
Begin to doubt my state of mind  
But I won't go down on what I said  
I won't retract convictions read,  
I made the plex but I'm not blind.

So take all this noise  
To your brain  
Send it back again  
I'll bear the cause  
Share my skin  
Call you up and then....  
*whisper*  
I'll say the words out loud...

You can ressurect a thousand words to decieve me,  
More and more.  
A thousand words will give the reason why I don't need you,  
Anymore.  
Ooh

I'll say the words out loud  
I'll say a thousand words or more... (to infinity)  
Manipulation  
Fabrication  
Conversation  
Annihlation  
I'll say a thousand words or more... (to infinity)  
Damnation  
Frustration  
Elevation  
Procreation  
I'll say a thousand words or more... (to infinity)

You can ressurect a thousand words to devcieve me,  
More and more.  
A thousand words will give the reason why I don't need you,  
Anymore.  
You can ressurect a thousand words to devcieve me,  
More and more.  
A thousand words will give the reason why I don't need you,  
Anymore.  
**The Story**  


*~*~*

Setsuna stepped out onto the terrace, mulling over his words.  
*****  
"Don't even think about us! There is nothing between us! I belong with the Princess!"  
*****  
She shook her head angrily, trying to get his voice out of her head. She fingered her long black strands and sipped the already cold tea. Inside the television flashed light on the white walls. Haruka was sprawled out on the chair, one leg up on the arm, the other on the floor. Her arms were over the other arm. Michiru was on the couch, forgetting her earlier testament, "I will not go to sleep here, Haruka! We have our own home, we've no business using Setsuna's!"  
Setsuna held up the time key that hung on a chain around her neck. Somewhere, at some point in time, he really did love her. Without any interference from the young girl. Setsuna realized she had just knocked over a spider fern, a very rare plant. She shrugged, watching it fall into the street. No way to save it now.  
*****  
"But I love you, Prince!" Pluto knelt before him, her Time key clattering to the ground. She tugged at his black cloak. He knelt beside her and frowned pleadingly.  
"But we are destined. I love _her_."  
*****  
Tears welled up in her eyes though she willed them to stop. Soon tears streamed down her face like rain. She did not notice when a delicate hand went to her shoulder. "Setsuna," Michiru said, trying to get her friend to look her way. Setsuna kept her eyes shrouded in her forearms. "Setsuna, I understand its hard. But we've got to focus. I can't stay in the waters, Haruka-chan can't run from her problems, and you can't moon over him. It's a fact of life, Setsuna-chan." Setsuna stopped crying, but kept her head down. Michiru waited for a moment, expecting a response. She got none and walked off the balcony.  
Before she shut the door, Michiru turned, her hair tangling in the slight wind. "We all have cared for him at one point or another, Setsuna-chan. Some as a brother, some as a lover." Setsuna looked up, but Michiru was already back on the couch and asleep, as if she had never come out at all.  
*****  
He kissed her softly, waiting for a response. The girl's lips were cold and lifeless.  
Pluto knelt at his side, but his eyes remained on her chilled corpse. He put his gloved hands to his head, then clawed at his fine black hair, trying to relieve his anger.  
Pluto put her hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure the Prince. He threw her hand away and crouched over the lifeless form. Then a thought seemed to strike him, for he rose like a snarling animal and ran to his mirror image, white for his black. With a wave of his hand, the white Prince blasted the dark one to the floor, sending him spinning to lay beside his love.  
As the two crystals began to touch, Pluto rose the Time key high above her head, repeating sacred words over and over again. And so time stopped.  
*****  
Her eyes watered again as she remembered that frightening time. 'Time. I could change time so he would marry who he was supposed to. Me...' Setsuna-chan thought, then discarded in a breath. 'I cannot change what is written in stone. It would destroy everything and then where would we be?' _"...and you can't moon over him."_ Setsuna hated her choice of words. She was always so articulate, but when it came to consoling, Michiru was of no help. Nor Haruka for that matter. _"A man is good for only one thing, to carry your burdens."_ Setsuna had almost slapped her for that one. She had said it in a playful manner, yet the feeling was not truthful.  
Had Michiru been right? _"Some as a brother, some as a lover."_ Did other Senshi's hearts ache as hers did? No. It seemed so impossible. But as Setsuna spent the night in bed awake, her eyes tracing over the moments she remembered on the dark ceiling, she found the truth. They all cared for him in one manner or another. "Some as a brother, some as a lover." Setsuna repeated as she remembered Sailor Mars' face as he died. It had been like a part of her died with him. And when he was alive again, she was the first to reach his comforting arms, one step in front of that girl's. Again she remembered Venus', Jupiter's, Mercury's, Haruka and Michiru's. Only Venus and Mars seem to love him, saving Moon and ChibiMoon. Jupiter seemed to think of him as an older brother, and Moon as a younger sister. Mercury thought of him the same, but as someone to learn from. Haruka seemed to think of him as a younger brother that was to be respected, but she wrestled with him all the same. Michiru was a puzzle. She seemed to think of him as neither. Or both.  
Sunlight filtered in through the windows of Setsuna's apartment. Setsuna looked over at the clock menacingly. 7:52. An hour and eight minutes before she _had_ to be at work.  
Setsuna stood, her black hair waving in the slight wind. She undressed, showered, and dressed. There were no meetings today. Nothing to do but work out a few more designs. And think. Oh, this was going to be a very long day. She stepped into the tiny living-room, the television still blaring, and Haruka still draped over the chair. Michiru was out on the patio, buttoning her cardigan against the cool Tokyo breeze.  
"Here." Setsuna said, handing her a cup of tea. Chamomile tea, Michiru's favorite. She sipped her own, leaning over a pot of over-flowing ivy.  
"Did you sleep?" Michiru said, looking at her shoes as she cradled the cup in her hands.  
"Not very well. You are too much of an inspiration." Setsuna said laughingly.  
"I couldn't either. I suppose you figured out who loves him and who doesn't." Michiru looked out at the Tokyo sunrise, listening to the gentle hum of the morning's traffic.  
"Yes, pretty much. Except for one-"  
"Me." Michiru looked up into Setsuna's eyes, interrupting her train of thought.  
"Well, y-yes." Setsuna looked surprised, her eyes wide and wondering as Michiru resumed her survey of the skyline.  
"I feel the same as you do." She said, her eyes no longer angry and resentful, but sad and longing. "I love Haruka with all my heart, but he was the one who awakened me. I would rather be with her than him, but somewhere in my heart I love him, as I know he loves us all."  
"Me too." Haruka said, her hand resting on the doorframe. "He awakened me, too, though he didn't know it. That man awakened each of the Sailor Senshi, from Sailor Venus to the Princess of the Moon. He awakened us all in his ignorance. I bumped into him in a subway, and we stared at each other for a moment if we knew each other, then turned away. As I was turning I bumped into Michiru."  
"So we are all the same in that respect, but why him?" Setsuna said, crossing her arms.  
"Because he is the Prince. Our knight in shining armor. It's just that as he comes to save us, forgetting _his_ love, we fall in love with him. It is neither his fault or ours, it's just a mistake. We weren't supposed to love him as we do, yet we do. That's what happened when your knight turns out to be with someone else." Michiru said, leaving her cup on the railing.  
"So why don't we hate her? Why do we follow her blindly into the depths of darkness, knowing no true glory will arise?" Haruka said, leaning against the door until it slid back and dropped her onto the floor.  
This time Setsuna answered. "Because she has what we aspire to. What we want. We desire what she has, but knowing that it can never be lets us wish we were her instead. So by caring for her, we care for him as well."  
*****  
"Tuxedo Kamen-sama..." The Princess said, as she drew her dying breath. Tears fell from the Senshi's eyes, as their friend dropped her hand from her beloved's cheek. They could feel his pain, feel how he tore at his hair and screamed in rage at his love's death. They knew he was to die alongside her, but there was nothing they could do to stop it...  
*****  
Michiru's picture hung on the way. A graceful, dark figure danced across the canvas while a figure of white spiraled alongside it. As her eyes relaxed she could see his face and the girl's, meeting at the flash of flesh-tones. Blue eyes swirled through the painting, tears running from them like frightened children from a monster. Finally it was completed. A man in black and a woman in white lay curved on a marble floor. Their eyes remained locked on the others though it was apparent they were dead. The painting remained "Untitled". 

The End


End file.
